TUCSON, AZ — A woman wanted in connection with a 2009 daycare fire that killed 49 children in Hermosillo, Mexico, has been deported from Arizona to face criminal charges.
Sandra Lucia Tellez-Nieves, 51, was removed from the U.S. and returned to Mexico on October 2.
She is accused of negligent injury and homicide related to the fire at the ABC Daycare Center, where she was a co-owner at the time of the fire.
The fire broke out on June 5, 2009, and nearly 150 children were trapped inside. Forty-nine children, all between five months and five years old, died. Around 100 more were injured, according to authorities.
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Tellez-Nieves was initially wanted shortly after the fire, but the charges were dropped. In 2022, Mexican authorities reissued the warrant for her arrest.
She was located in Tucson on January 15, 2025, and taken into custody during a traffic stop. Officials say she had been living in the U.S. on an expired visitor visa.
Her co-defendant, Robert Copado-Gutierrez, was arrested in March by the United States Marshals Service, with the assistance of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, for negligent injury and homicide and remains in U.S. custody, awaiting deportation to Mexico.
